Survivor (#1 The Lost Crown Series)

Chapter 48:- Another Side of the Story

"How do you fight against fate?"

The screams were deafening even in the room that was located in the farthest corner. A man sat in there silently rocking in the chair.

He closed his eyes as he revelled in the sound of the screams filled with agony. With a deep and gruff sigh, he closed his eyes and leaned back in the chair, giving in to the darkness, and going back all those years, to the beginning of it all.

He was merely thirteen years old when he had met that lady in the woods while on his way home from school. The lady had beautiful platinum blonde hair and was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. So much so, that he remembered thinking to himself if he had lost his mind and if she was a Fairy queen.

The grown man scoffed in the dark room. If only the thirteen years old version of him had any idea how painfully right he was.

That was the first day that Max saw Irene. She had come to him saying that she wanted to make him aware of the impending dangers so that he could keep his family safe.

Under the veil of the invisibility charm, Irene had taken Max into the land of a small pack far away from there. Irene showed the flabbergasted boy how men could change into wolves.

The old Max now opened his eyes. A small ray of light fell over his hand on the armrest of the chair. He turned his hand over and looked at the scar on his forearm glistening against the sun.

Irene had played a wonderful game with him. She took advantage of the gullible thirteen year old human, made him think he had to enter this world to end those creatures to keep his little siblings and family safe. Unable of talking to anyone about it, Max believed her.

That was then Max's training started.

Then one day, she approached Max when he was with his little brother Leon. Leon was different from the others. He had no empathy, no concern for anything, which was immensely worrying for his family. But it was only after they found him mutilating two puppies that his parents started to pay more attention to him. There were visits to a psychologist and several constant counselling sessions which had proven to be very helpful for him, at least till then.

Since that day, Irene had been feeding Leon's hunger for violence and blood, and Max had no way of protecting his brother from this. This brainwashing, making them believe that the werewolves are the tormentors of the humans, by the mere example of rogue wolves, continued until Max had turned twenty-three and Leon seventeen.

Max could see the glow in his brother's eyes every time Irene promised to teach him how to kill the beasts. Yet, there was nothing he could do. Irene was very convincing with her theories of how the brothers were meant for this world. Just like that, Max lost his reasons and actually believed her.

However, one day when Max came home from his girlfriend's house, he found Leon standing outside their house, the house which was then engulfed in flames. Leon face only held curiosity.

"Leon, what the hell?!" Max screamed as he pulled Leon back slightly.

Leon stumbled back but his eyes were still on the flames devouring his house. The lack of expressions on his face made him scarier than a seventeen year old is supposed to look. "Do you think they are screaming?" he asked.

Max looked at him bewildered, "Did you do this?"

Leon scoffed and shook his head, "When I came home from school it was already burning." With a shrug, he continued, "I saw Olivia banging against the glass for only a few seconds but she fell, so I guess everyone was inside."

"No," Max whispered, "No, no, no!" he rushed towards the burning house but there were a few others there from the neighbouring houses who pulled him back. He screamed and cried and struggled hard to be able to go to his family, his baby sister, but it was of no use.